Penguin

Differences between version 15 and predecessor to the previous major change of Acorn.

Other diffs: Previous Revision, Previous Author, or view the Annotated Edit History

Newer page: version 15 Last edited on Friday, August 15, 2003 10:40:26 pm by JohnMcPherson Revert
Older page: version 12 Last edited on Sunday, August 10, 2003 5:53:13 pm by CraigBox Revert
@@ -1,20 +1,50 @@
-A now disfunct, innovative british system design company - and the story of an underdog who didn't but did win, kinda. See also [FOLDOC|http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?query=acorn] 
+!!!Prologue  
+  
+[Acorn] is a now disfunct, innovative british system design company - and the story of an underdog who didn't but did win, kinda. See also [FOLDOC|http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?query=acorn]  
+  
+%%%  
+  
+!!!Rising Action: Electron  
  
 (One of?) their first products was the Electron computer. It plugged into the television, had 16 KB of memory, and ran [BASIC] in [ROM]. You could load programs from cassette tape via a normal audio tape deck, or you could type them in. A floppy disk, even a harddrive, were available as insanely expensive expansion modules. The [CPU] was a 6502B, just slightly different from what powered the hugely successful [Commodore64] home computer. Unfortunately, neither graphics nor sound capabilities could hold a candle to those of the [Commodore64]. 
  
 ''I had one of those.. *sigh* memories..'' --AristotlePagaltzis 
  
-The next model was the Acorn [BBC]. Because they were British, schools in the UK used the [BBC] computers. Some schools in NewZealand followed suit. The BBC Model B also had a 6502 processor. This was probably mid-to-late 80's to early 90's.  
+%%%  
  
-After that was the Acorn Archimedes. They were very popular with some schools as they were the successor to [BBC] model B micros in a lot of classrooms before the rise of the [PC]. Their [CPU] was [Acorn]'s own, later incredibly successful [ARM] chip. Their OS was called RiscOS, which had a [GUI] and was very well designed. Eventually, though, schools and the public started using the cheaper mass-produced drivel that still haunts us today.  
+!!!Mounting Tension: [BBC] 
  
-''I DTPed our Te Awamutu College school magazine on an Archimedes (A3000?) back when a [GUI] was __seriously__ cool...'' --GreigMcGill 
+The next model was the Acorn [BBC]. Because they were British, schools in the UK used the [BBC] computers. Some schools in NewZealand followed suit. The [BBC] Model B also had a 6502 processor. This was probably mid-to-late 80's to early 90's.  
+  
+The BBC's graphics and sound hardware were well accessible under [BBC] [BASIC] with the powerful plot and envelope [1] command, respectively. They were both far ahead of anything any other computer in this class had to offer. What really set the [BBC] apart was the modularity of its operating system and its use of interrupts. There was a MOS for all the basic functions like video graphics, buffered keyboard input, vectored interrupts, buffered sound. 16k ROMs were available to accomodate networking routines and many different programming languages ([BASIC], LOGO, [Pascal], [Forth], you name it).  
+  
+%%%  
+  
+!!!Climax: Archimedes  
+  
+This success was followed by the Acorn Archimedes, a computer that built a small but very loyal community for good reason. Its heart was [Acorn]'s own new [CPU], the [ARM] chip later to become incredibly successful, surrounded by a system whose design was a decade ahead of most competition. The RiscOS OperatingSystem running on this machine had a slick and gorgeous [GUI] and well thought out design to match the hardware it was runnning on. Unlike much of the competition, the machine had plenty of cycles left after managing the [GUI], which was further enforced by the fact that the [API] was friendly enough for writing graphical applications even in [Assembler]. As a result, it was a joy both to use and develop for (whether that be software or hardware). Many of the games that ran on it were nothing short of breathtaking to users of other systems. Software rendered vector 3D graphics were common at a time they were considered revolutionary in the rest of the commodity computing world.  
+  
+The Archimedes superseeded the [BBC] model B micros in a lot of classrooms before the rise of the [PC]. Eventually, though, schools and the public started using the cheaper mass-produced drivel that still haunts us today.  
+  
+ ''I [DTP]ed our Te Awamutu College school magazine on an Archimedes (A3000?) back when a [GUI] was __seriously__ cool...'' --GreigMcGill  
+  
+%%%  
+  
+!!!Falling Action: RiscPC  
  
 An attempt to counter the rising popularity of the then so-called "[IBM] compatibles" was called [RiscPC] and ran the [StrongARM] series [CPU]s. These too ran RiscOS and had a novel system design consisting of modules. To update the hardware, you didn't have to open the case, you just added a new module just as you do to "update" your stereo system. Unfortunately... 
+  
+%%%  
+  
+!!!Denouement  
  
 In the end, [Acorn] Computers Ltd. was shut down (accompanied by much mourning in the connaissant geek community), as [WinTel] machines dominated the market and drove them out of business. 
  
-However, the [CPU] design was sourced out to the newly funded [ARM Ltd.|http://www.arm.com], an IntellectualProperty only company that holds the rights to the [StrongARM] architecture. Even [Intel] have licensed it, and a huge market share of hand held and embedded devices nowadays run on [StrongARM] derivatives. So, in a way, "the king is dead - long live the king"... 
+However, the [CPU] design was sourced out to the newly funded [ARM Ltd.|http://www.arm.com], an IntellectualProperty only company that holds the rights to the [StrongARM] architecture. Even [Intel] have licensed it, and a huge market share of hand held and embedded devices nowadays run on [StrongARM] derivatives.  
+  
+ So, in a way, "the king is dead - long live the king"... 
  
 ---- 
 Part of CategoryCompany and CategoryOldComputers 
+  
+[1] Actually, the electron had the envelope command as well (it also ran BBC BASIC). The envelope command took 14 parameters, and I must have spent many hundreds of hours playing with the parameters to see what effect it had on the resulting sound, without ever figuring out what each parameter did :) Obviously it wasn't just a single pitch; one command could rise and fall multiple times with varying loudness...  
The following authors of this page have not agreed to the WlugWikiLicense. As such copyright to all content on this page is retained by the original authors.
  • MatthewHarrodine
The following authors of this page have agreed to the WlugWikiLicense.

PHP Warning

lib/blame.php (In template 'html'):177: Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() (...repeated 3 times)

lib/plugin/WlugLicense.php (In template 'html'):99: Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()

lib/plugin/WlugLicense.php (In template 'html'):111: Warning: in_array() [<a href='function.in-array'>function.in-array</a>]: Wrong datatype for second argument